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2010 WSOP updates

2010 WSOP Main Event Is Underway

by Wicked Chops Entity on 7.5.2010 in Poker Tournaments | no comments

Gonna be hard to top Angel Girl, who showed up on the rail during last year's Main Event.

The 2010 WSOP Main Event just started with 2004 champion Greg Raymer given the ~~honor~~ curse of calling out the first ceremonial “Shuffle Up and ~~Eat~~ Deal.” Today is the first of four Day 1s. Day 1a and Day 1c will combine to become Day 2a while Day 1b and Day 1d become Day 2b.

Like every year, the talk the first four days is all about whether there will be smoking hot Girls on the Rail, and after that, how big the field be. Regarding the former, it’s going to be hard to top last year’s talent (see Angel Girl and Miss Hungary 2008) but we’re hoping/praying to be surprised. On the numbers front, last year’s 6,494 was a drop from 2008′s 6,844, with many people blaming The Economy^TM for the decline. Not much has changed on that front but with numbers up across the board this year at the WSOP, most are predicting the field to out number 2009. Go ahead and give us your predictions in the comments.

While the “big name” pros generally like to play either Day 1c or 1d, plenty notables are here today, including Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, Chris Moneymaker, Nick Schulman, Scott Seiver, Greg Mueller, Isaac Haxton, Chino Rheem, Lee Markholt-Watkinson, Beth Shak, a woman, Lacey Jones, a woman, 2007 Last Woman Standing^TM Maria Ho and 2008 Last Woman Standing^TM Tiffany Michelle.

Stay tuned for some updates and photos from the 2010 WSOP Main Event today including Girls on the Rail photos.

UPDATE: Mike Matusow is at the ESPN featured table right now. At the secondary featured tables is Erik Seidel and Greg Raymer.

UPDATE: 2004 WSOP Main Event champ Greg Raymer has already been eliminated with 40 minutes still left in Level 1.

Tagged as: 2010 WSOP, 2010 WSOP Main Event, 2010 WSOP updates

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Daniel Alaei Wins His 3rd WSOP Bracelet

by Wicked Chops Entity on 7.5.2010 in Poker Tournaments | no comments

Whenever the name Daniel Alaei comes up, we wonder: Whatever happened to Carmel Petresco (above)?

With lackluster final tables on tap today and the 2010 WSOP Main Event just minutes away from starting, we were just going to skip past the final three preliminary events of the series. But Daniel Alaei win in Event #55 deserves a post of his own.

The 25-year-old has quietly and quickly amassed nearly $5 million in tournament winnings the past few years, and early this morning he won his third WSOP bracelet, taking down the the $10,000 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha World Championship to collect $780,599. Finishing second was Miguel Proulx of Canada, who picked up a WSOP bracelet earlier this summer in Event #25 ($2,500 buy-in PLO).

Add Alaei’s win to his total of five WSOP final table appearances, his recent WPT title ($15,000 buy-in 2009 Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic) and 7th place finish in the $50,000 buy-in Players Championship this year, and you have to put him up there as one of the top tournament pros on the circuit. And again, he’s only 25. Pretty sick. How many bracelets he can grab by the time he’s 30, only time will tell. But you have to give him good odds of surpassing Phil Ivey‘s record for youngest to reach 6 bracelets, which he did by the time he was 32.

For a full write up on Alaei’s win and the final table of Event #, go here.

For updates today on the final tables of Event #54 and #55, go here and here, respectively.

Tagged as: 2010 WSOP, 2010 WSOP updates, daniel alaei

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Huck Seed Wins WSOP Tournament of Champions

by Wicked Chops Entity on 7.5.2010 in Poker Tournaments | no comments

Huck Seed won a battle of our Official Picks to Win it in capturing the first ever TOC.

Well, our old Official Pick to Win^TM defeated our current Official Pick to Win It^TM in the first ever WSOP Tournament of Champions.

Huck Seed captured the inaugural TOC, defeating a field of around 21 or 22 of the best poker players in the world and a few other guys to bank $500,000.

He defeated Howard Lederer ($250,000) heads-up for the title.

Mercifully, Johnny Chan and “Salty” Joe Hachem were eliminated in third and fourth places, respectively.

2010 WSOP Update: Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan In Control of $10k PLO

by Wicked Chops Entity on 7.3.2010 in Poker Tournaments | 1 comment

Things are starting to look up at the 2010 WSOP...

Is the 2010 WSOP Main Event starting on Monday? Really? Really? What just happened?

Big day today. First, we’ll be on the Ante Up for Africa red carpet around noon. On the tournament front, Frank Kassela goes for his third bracelet of the year and looks to eclipse Tom Schneider as the most-random-solid-old-guy-who-isn’t-really-exciting-but-everyone-likes WSOP Player of the Year ever. Also, Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan is ready to scare the bejesus out of Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Huck Seed, et. al. again as he is absolutely crushing the $10k PLO event.

Then finally, where will Lebron sign?

On with the updates.

:: Event #52 ($25,000 NLH Six-Handed) – Wow, this one had the potential to be a fantastic final table and it basically went thud after the first few eliminations of the day. Had the prospects of a Daniel Negreanu, Carlos Mortensen, Abe Mosseri (good TV), Sir Isaac Haxton, Heather Sue Mercer, a woman, Justin Bonomo final table and instead it’s Dan Kelly (5,895,000), Frank Kassela (2,610,000), Shawn Buchanan (2,110,000), Jason Somerville (1,665,000), Mikael Thuritz (1,535,000), and Eugene Katchalov (475,000). Good times.

:: Event #53 ($1,500 LH Shoot-Out) – Brendan Taylor wins the shoot-out, banking $184,950 and his first bracelet. Carry on. Full payouts here.

:: Event #54 ($1,000 NLH) – Another donkament^TM, another day. Get full chip counts here.

:: Event #55 ($10,000 PLO) – Ruh-roh. All the Big Gamers with durrrr bracelets bets will be sweating this one. With 33 remaining, Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan has a huge chip lead in the PLO Championship, stacked at 910,000. In second is Danny Wong with 563,000. Also alive…Phil Hellmuth with 347,000. Get full chip counts here.

:: Event #56 ($2,500 NLH) – The final event of the day registered an impressive 1,942, creating a first place prize of $825,976. A total of around 585 remain. Peruse the names here.

Tagged as: 2010 WSOP, 2010 WSOP updates, Brendan Taylor, Tom 'durrrr' Dwan

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